O Rama, consider the journey of the mind and discernment. When discernment is only partially awakened and has not yet reached the pure, stainless state, the mind’s abandonment of worldly enjoyments brings about intense distress. The seeker, caught between longing and renunciation, feels great suffering. In such a state, when the awakened one—whose heart is filled with compassion—sees the body’s limbs weeping, the mind wonders in sorrow, “Alas, now that I have abandoned these enjoyments, where shall I turn?” If, with only half-attained discernment, the mind tries to abandon even the limbs themselves, the distress only grows deeper. Yet, when discernment is complete and the mind is fully awakened, a different joy arises—a laughter born of the intoxication of realization. This laughter, O Rama, is the satisfaction of a mind that has attained true understanding. For one who has fully awakened and left behind the cycle of worldly existence, when the mind releases its attachment to forms, bliss only increases. But when the limbs are seen laughing in mockery, it is the mind’s own perception of forms that brings about deception. For a long time, I too was deceived by false imaginations spun by delusion; my own limbs, seen by my mind, seemed to mock me. But when the mind rests in discernment and dwells in the infinite, it looks back calmly upon its former wretchedness from afar, and laughs at its past delusions. When I earnestly questioned and examined myself, discernment seized my mind, as has been shown. When the limbs have fallen away and vanished from perception, it is clear that, without the mind’s desire for objects, they come naturally to rest. The story of the man with a thousand eyes and arms is told to illustrate how the mind can project infinite forms upon itself. When a person strikes himself again and again, it is the mind that imagines these blows and strikes itself. When one flees from himself, striking himself, it is the mind fleeing from its own impulses and inflicting pain upon itself. By his own will, he torments his own mind and then tries to escape; see, O Rama, how ignorance manifests in this way. All minds, scorched by their own tendencies, flee by themselves, eager to reach a state of peace. This widespread suffering is created by the mind itself; and when the self is greatly afflicted, it again tries to escape from its own suffering. Within the net of desires and impressions, bondage arises by itself. The mind, with threads spun from its own fancies, binds itself—like a silkworm weaving its own cocoon. Just as a restless child plays heedlessly and suffers misfortune, unaware of the pain to come, so too does the mind engage in its own difficult games, not seeing the suffering that awaits. Consider also the monkey who, not realizing the danger, gets its testicles caught in a hole in wood and, in trying to pull them out, brings itself pain. In the same way, the mind brings suffering upon itself through its own actions. However, through long practice and sustained contemplation, the mind attains stability. Having reached its own natural state by repeated effort, it no longer grieves. If the mind is neglected, sufferings increase like the peaks of a mountain; but when brought under control, they vanish just as snow melts before the sun. Throughout life, the mind must be guarded by noble resolve—born from understanding scripture and by the practice of restraining the passions, as the sages do through silence. When this discipline is established, one attains the pure, cooling, unborn state—a state that, once realized, protects a person from sorrow even in the greatest calamities. This mind, O Rama, has reached the supreme state of Brahman, merging into That just as a wave merges into the ocean. For the awakened, the mind is nothing but Brahman; there is no other reality, just as a wave is not different from the ocean for those who truly see. But for those who have not awakened, the mind is the cause of wandering in worldly existence—just as those who do not recognize the oneness of water see the waves as separate from the ocean. For those yet unawakened, distinctions made through words and meanings are imagined only for the sake of their awakening. The supreme Brahman is all-powerful, eternal, complete, and imperishable. There is nothing apart from That, nor is there anything within That which is not the all-pervading Self. Whatever power is pleasing to that all-pervading Lord, He manifests that very power—spreading it everywhere. O Rama, the consciousness-power of Brahman is seen in living bodies; the power of vibration in the winds; inertness in stones; liquidity in water; heat in fire; emptiness in space; and the very power of being in all that exists. The all-pervading power of Brahman is seen in every direction: the power of destruction in perishable things, the power of sorrow in those who grieve, the power of bliss in the joyful, the power of strength in the mighty, the power of creation in created beings, and, at the end of an age, the power that absorbs all. Just as a tree—with its fruits, flowers, creepers, leaves, branches, and joints—abides within the seed, so too does this world abide within Brahman. By the force of appearance alone, between consciousness and inertness, the mind—called the individual soul—seems to be seen within Brahman. In the same way, as in a tree various creepers, thickets, clusters, and shoots reside, so too do the powers of the individual soul dwell within Brahman. Just as the earth, according to the laws of place and season, produces various flowers, so too do minds create the worlds. At certain times, in certain places, certain powers arise—just as rice plants sprout from the earth, depending on time and place. This alone is Brahman—pure, undifferentiated consciousness, free from imagined concepts—this ‘I’, this ‘you’, the world, and all directions, O Raghava. That Self, O Rama, pervades all, ever manifesting as the great form; whatever power of thought it assumes, that is called the mind. Just as the movement of a feather appears in the sky, or a whirlpool forms in water, so too is the mind and the individual soul merely a glimmer of appearance within the Self.